Renee Gardner – Utopia Women’s Wellness

Today I get to introduce you to the amazing Renee Gardner. Renee is the face behind the Utopia Women’s Wellness event held in Brisbane this year. Utopia is an exclusive, one day event focusing on holistic wellness, with a goal to educate, inspire and empower. I wrote about Utopia here and here. If you missed Utopia this year, don’t stress, because Renee has some exciting news to share with us!

Tell us about your journey, what sparked your passion for the health and wellness industry?

My journey and great passion in the health and wellness industry started around two years ago when I returned from living in London. I am one of those girls who has always been told I am ‘lucky’ with health and fitness, I definitely did not put a second thought into my nutrition and diet in high school and Uni. When I returned from London I experienced family and friends with serious health scares. I started to go deeper into research and discovered some very interesting information and developed a passion to help these close family and friends to take their health into their own hands.

What’s your number one wellness tip?

It comes down to four things: Your mind, body (be active), nutrition (eat fresh food, mainly plants and avoid packaged foods) and friendships. Get these sorted and you are on the right path – there is no end destination, it is a continual process of self improvement

The most important thing to do is to learn to love yourself. We need to practice this every day, actually, every moment. To train our conscious mind, remove all negative thoughts, praise ourselves. Our unconscious mind will follow.

What’s your one non-negotiable when it comes to your health?

A non negotiable would definitely have to be having ‘me’ time. It is my favourite thing to step away from a busy life and just listen to music, sit at the beach, read a book, get a massage, meditate. It might sound silly but I love cooking and cleaning with dance music up loud.

What motto do you live by?

It is only your mind that is stopping you’ – I say this to myself every day. In any moment when I have a negative or ‘I can’t’ thought I will repeat this over and over. It covers every aspect of my life from when I was changing my nutrition habits, to starting a business, to my fitness training. My Mum also taught me a very important thing when I was young and it is that ‘everything will work out in the end. Nothing is so bad that it cannot be solved’.

What is your proudest achievement?

To-date, Utopia would have to be my proudest moment. Seeing over a thousand enthusiastic women enjoying a day focused on their health and wellbeing.

What are your goals for the future?

To continue growing Utopia to support women around Australia and work on other projects to educate, inspire and empower women to live a happy, healthy life through holistic wellness. Also to continue learning more about natural healing and nutrition. I am on a journey just like all of the other women I share the day with at Utopia… Oh and to travel around the world

Tell us something not many people know about you?

I plan to learn the drums this summer and travel to Japan to use my snow board I haven’t used since living in Canada about 5 years ago.

Can you share with us one of your favourite recipes?

My favourite meal is breakfast. I have a smoothie and oats every morning which I absolutely love. I mix up the ingredients every day but here is one I loved:
Acai, spirulina, strawberry, lettuce and apple smoothie.
Oats with apple, cinnamon, chia seeds, almonds and raw honey.

Where can we find you?

The best place to keep up to date with me and Utopia Women’s Wellness is